This picture? A fast birthday cake treat. I used a little more effort on the pie.

The above picture was a treat made on the fly. Different celebration than the ice cream pie.

Birthday’s seem to get celebrated 12 times over at this age. In my attempt to try minimize the sugar and junk, I made a fun ice cream cookie cake modified from this recipe.

Birthdays are never ending at this age. It really is a “Birthday month”.

This ice cream pie was fun to make and I was thrilled with the results.

And it is not too bad on sugar.

My chocolate-loving father even had 2nd helpings. Little did he know what was in that ginormous cookie.

A can of beans.

Don’t freak, read on..

First whir up your cookie dough ingredients in your food processor…

…then press 1/2 of the cookie dough batter onto cheesecake (springform) pan. This is lined with parchment paper…see it sticking out on the side there?

Then pop it in the oven.

Here it is baked. That’s one BIG cookie.

Complete cookie number 1.

Plate it. And pop it in the freezer. You’ll do this twice.

So yes, you’ll have two BIG cookies.

Soften your ice cream.

Pile it on cookie number one.

Smoosh and spread it out by placing parchment over and smoosh away…

See?

Seal it up with it’s twin cookie…

Add some chocolate chips to the side. Nom nom.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Pie

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

1 can white beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

6 Tbsp natural applesauce

3 Tbsp pure maple syrup

3 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

3/4- 1 cup Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips

1/2 gallon light vanilla ice cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line springform pan with parchment paper and secure.

In food processor blend everything (except the chocolate chips) together until a dough is formed, stopping to scrape the sides down if necessary.

Add chocolate chips and pulse a few times just to lightly incorporate.

Press 1/2 of the dough into pan, spreading and flattening with your fingertips.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly brown along the edges and allow to cool on the baking sheet. Release the collar of the springform pan and transfer the entire giant cookie (with parchment) to the freezer until ready to assemble.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 with remaining batter.

Allow ice cream to sit out for a little bit to soften slightly.

Remove large cookies from the freezer and press ice cream on top using parchment.

Add top cookie and press down gently. I added a few chocolate chips along the sides for fun.

Re-freeze until ready to eat.

***Before I put this back in the freezer, I cut this into slices thinking it would be easier when it came time to serve it. I sliced it, covered it and popped it in the freezer over night. The next day I took it out 15 minutes before serving and it was perfect and was very easy to separate and not too melty…:)